Day 11 - Wed 8 Jun 2016
Docked - Waterford, NY

[photo: second docktail party of the cruise; more to come we are sure]

We slept wonderfully through the night and awoke to outside air temps in the low 50s and inside temp about 65F. The forecast is for rather cool temps for the next few days. By 0730, three of the boats here were readying for departure to go through the first lock. We said some temporary goodbyes as we will almost certainly see them 'down the road.'

I got some exercise by walking up to the first lock after I saw the doors close. It had taken a long time for the 6 boats to get situated properly and once they were lifted about 30 feet to the top, 3 of them had to purchase lock passes, so that added 20 minutes to the process. One new cruising friend we made had entered the lock first at 0745 and it was well over an hour before they departed for the next lock. That is pretty slow by most standards.

I stopped at the Visitor Center to show appreciation to the many volunteers that make this wonderful deal possible. Most of them are enthusiastic supporters of the boaters using the canal, but few have ever had the opportunity or desire to do what some of us are doing. They are almost universally thrilled to hear about the adventures we have already enjoyed. At least, they are good at pretending they are.

I washed off the thousands of tiny flies that had lighted and died on our boat overnight. I then remembered the same thing happening last year. We next left on foot with our backpack and carrying bags to cross the Hudson over the bridge to the Hannaford grocery store. It was only about one-quarter mile. We had decided that this was the last place we knew between here and Brewerton (8 days away) to conveniently reach a large grocery store. We got some provisions to cook up today for the next several meals.

Back at Diva Di, Diane stowed tings away and prepped the galley for my cooking session. First, I got the split turkey breast in the crockpot with its requisite sauce and seasonings for its 6 hour cooking time. We will often use the crockpot underway, but on the Erie Canal we are not likely to be underway for more than a few hours with the engines running continuously, so it made sense to do it while plugged into shore power.

Next, I made the second boat version of Greek Chicken, but since the crockpot was occupied, I modified the methods for a stovetop version. I will post that recipe as a separate blog entry because we are thrilled with the flavors. I had to measure everything added in order to make a recipe since I rarely measure anything.

One interesting development is that we have a camper/biker situated right opposite us on the grass under trees. We made conversation and I discovered he is an Israeli, probably nearing 70, who loves biking and camping along this stretch for his annual vacation. He has biked/camped extensively in Europe and finds this area to be wonderful in terms of scenery, affordability, and friendliness of the locals. I say this with utmost respect for him, but he seems like a bit of an 'odd duck' in the manner in which he dresses and the travel luggage he has, but he is very friendly and appreciative of our conversations.

I took a walk up to Lock E-2 to purchase the 10-day pass, got a shower, and made it back to the boat just before the 1700 docktail party we had set up on our boat. Before long we had John and Sharon from Building Our Wings (another PDQ34), Michael and Cathy from Trawler Life, and Ken and Lindy from Rascal (New Zealanders doing the Loop). It was a lot of fun with many stories and lots of laughter.

Everyone stayed until 2000, a full three hours. We did out cleanup and hit the sack.